I'm not really interested in the space exploration aspect of this article, though I wish for similar things.

Read this first paragraph and if you frequent this site it will send chills up and down your spine.

ATS- This is your Report From Iron Mountain, Project Blue Beam, and UN World Government rollout.

The Report from Iron Mountain, Contents
Regarding alien life, threats, and global space program, as well as every other growing threat to national soverignty today. (IE - Global Warming,
Destruction of Family, Bloodsport...)

Also from the article.

“If we spread the costs among an international consortium with many member nations," McCall told me, “we can afford a better, healthier life,
protect our planet from incoming asteroids and space debris, and outsmart our destiny to become extinct.”

I understand many peoples fears about a NWO or One World Government etc etc etc but I don't see anything wrong with international cooperation in space
exploration if done right. [How exactly? I don't know] but we as a species will someday IMO be a space fairing race.

How will we ever unite as a species to grow beyond out childish behavior if we can't even cooperate sending up some satellites and or probes to say
Mars and beyond? We have to start someplace and I think Space exploration and travel is one good avenue to explore and expand on. At the height of the
Cold War the two Super powers docked their competing space craft and become one man made satellite Apollo-Soyuz.

I'm sure many here who are not "Americans" would rather of had us Americans plant some sort of United Earth Flag than the US Flag on the moon.

“If we spread the costs among an international consortium with many member nations," McCall told me, “we can afford a better, healthier life,
protect our planet from incoming asteroids and space debris, and outsmart our destiny to become extinct.”

This is more or less the plot
of the 1979 movie Meteor starring Sean Connery.

The plot: An incoming asteroid was going to wipe us out like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The US didn't have the
resources to stop it, nor did the Soviet Union...but by combining resources internationally, the Earth did have the ability to stop it. It certainly
wasn't a very good movie but the plot is not unthinkable...the US has no monopoly on space technology and can't even get its own astronauts to and
from the ISS..so it certainly seems plausible we'd have a better chance of preventing our extinction with an international effort.

We have the brains the dinosaurs didn't, to prevent our own extinction...it would be a shame if we didn't put them to use to actually avoid the same
fate as the dinosaurs, yet it seems that is what some narrow-minded folks would like us to do...to not make the survival of our species a priority.

Originally posted by Arbitrageur
.the US has no monopoly on space technology and can't even get its own astronauts to and from the ISS...
.

What are you talking about? The United States Space Command is the ONLY force capable of ####### in space right now. A quick jaunt over to the Air
Force/Navy/Army Space Command sites show United States dominance in space. Our programs are far-reaching and we've had this for years now. Even with
the current "drone" in use now, very capably handling satellite interfacing/hacking (call it what you want), as well as having the ability to
eliminate "threats" if necessary. I pointed this out in the other forum as well. The advancements made since Vision 2010, and now Vision 2020 have
been on target.

Please don't underestimate our Armed Forces capabilities. I can tell you with absolute certainty that we are leading by a large margin. You have no
idea just how far ahead in the game we are.

edit on 4-2-2012 by SoulVisions because: non-disclosure. technically not "constitutional" what I
typed initially

Originally posted by BulletShogunplus its an american acomplishment. we deserve the credit.

If you want to look at it like that, then I'm sure the man responsible getting man to the moon and back - Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun - would
have preferred them to plant a German flag. Both the moon landings and the atomic bomb were projects largely based on German expertise, America just
bankrolled the projects.

To get anywhere in deep space colonisation will require a collective civilisation wide effort. However we are nowhere ready for that so it can
realistically be parked. What we need to achieve for our survival in the short-medium term is dominance of the solar system and spread of humanity to
multiple planets for redundancy.

All the historic drive that spread us throughout the globe has always been the desire for individuals to carve out space for themselves or their
tribe. If we want colonisation of the solar system to ever really occur you have to let wealthy individuals or collectives think they can take
possession of parts of it.

The outer space treaty of 1967 has probably done more to stifle space travel than anything. It was specifically written to do that.

"The treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial resource such as the Moon or a planet, claiming that they are the Common
heritage of mankind.[2] Art. II of the Treaty states that "outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national
appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means""

If a nation state could actually stake legitimate binding claims to bits of the solar system we would be further than we are now. If, for example, a
nation state or corporation that had a 2 year manned habitat at the martian ice caps could then lay stake to 100km around the settlement I would bet
there would be one there by now. It would be the ultimate long term power play.

Once the technology to do it became a commodity rather than research others would follow.

Science and exploration will be dabbled in for high minded purposes. For colonisation you need to harness greed.

It's stuns me that while our governments can spend trillions on the military and corporate bailouts, we can't fund a decent space program. When I
hear "That space money could best be spent elsewhere", my cynical mind interprets it as "We want to line our pockets".

Just think of all the new technologies developed by the space program, and the new ones that could be developed.

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